A Second Holocaust?

The Holocaust has become a weapon of choice for many of Israel’s worst enemies, for a resurgent anti-Semitism.

In recent years, the Holocaust has been subject to an increasingly sickening blend of ruthless politicization, deliberate distortion, crass commercialization and an often abject sentimentalism.

More ominously, it has also become a weapon of choice for many of Israel’s worst enemies and for a resurgent anti-Semitism which brands the entire enterprise of Holocaust memory as nothing but a “Zionist plot.”

In contemporary Europe, Holocaust guilt is used more often than not to promote the Palestinian cause rather than to recognize the necessity of having a Jewish state. Arab and Islamist propaganda, aided and abetted by many liberals and leftists (including some vocal Jewish anti- Zionists), hammers away at the grotesque libel that Israeli policies towards the Palestinians are worse than those of the Nazis. Many Europeans believe these fables.

In Israel itself, there are even academics who trumpet such absurdities which have become all-too- commonplace on certain campuses abroad, especially in Britain, North America and Scandinavia.

This systematic degradation of the Holocaust has many causes as well as consequences that must give us pause. It has been accompanied by an ignominious competition for the mantle of ultimate victim-hood that exudes a perverse resentment at the fact that Jews have allegedly “monopolized” the martyr’s crown of suffering and pain. Efforts to elevate the Palestinian Nakba to equal status with the Shoah are only the latest in a long line of such gross distortions.

Some years ago, the Hungarian Nobel Prize Laureate Imre Kertész analyzed the negative reactions to any reminder of Jewish sufferings. In 1998, he caustically observed that “the anti-Semite of our age no longer loathes Jews; he wants Auschwitz.”

This fact has not, however, prevented some Jewish intellectuals and Israelis from pursuing their own narrow political agendas and demanding that we abandon any engagement with Holocaust memory or universalize it out of existence.

This is one of several well-made points in Alvin Rosenfeld’s recent sobering study, titled The End of the Holocaust. No intelligent person reading this book or remotely familiar with the subject could still believe that the banal pieties that have grown up around the mass murder of European Jewry could serve as an effective antidote against present-day anti-Semitism.

Another striking result of the polemics surrounding Holocaust memory is a certain fatigue or plain distaste for hearing any more about the Jews and their specific sorrows. There has been a notable shift over the past 20 years to searching for almost any light at the end of the Holocaust tunnel, some kind of a happy ending or emotionally uplifting stories about human brotherhood, altruistic rescuers and easily digestible universal moral lessons to be drawn from this tragic history.

This trend may be humanly all-too-understandable but it ultimately involves a dangerously naïve level of escapism with regard to the bi-millennial Christian European Jew-hatred that made the Holocaust possible in the first place.

Worse still, it diverts us away from the nightmarish but not inconceivable possibility that nearly six million Israeli Jews (as well as many Muslim Arabs) could be destroyed by a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of Iran or one of its proxies. In other words, there could indeed be a second Holocaust.

The originally Greek term “Holocaust,” with its unacceptable implications of a wholly burned sacrificial offering to the gods, is of course a misnomer for the wartime mass slaughter of Europe’s Jews, providing the grisly event with a false glow of transcendent significance.

Like the term “anti- Semitism,” “Holocaust” is a misleading rationalization of the gigantic massacres perpetrated by German Jew-haters and their fascist collaborators.

But semantics aside, we must more than ever keep our minds focused on the cruel reality of the early 21st century concerning the Shoah, which I have explored extensively in my recent book on global anti- Semitism, A Lethal Obsession, namely, that the constant efforts to deny, relativize or invert the Holocaust – especially against Israel – are a conscious (or unconscious) invitation to repeat it.

This was already apparent about 10 years ago in the very public statement by former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani that “the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything.... It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality.”

Iranian “rationality” is evidently very different from that of Israel and the West. In their bizarre perspective, obtaining nuclear weapons may well accelerate the coming of the Mahdi (the Islamic Messiah). This is the dark cloud that hangs over International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2012, and it is not likely to go away.

About the Author

BIO: Professor Robert S Wistrich holds the Neuberger Chair of Modern European and Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA); His most recent books are From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) and Holocaust Denial: The Politics of Perfidy (De Gruyter, 2012)

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 16

(15)
Fred,
July 3, 2013 7:58 AM

Holocaust

When you change a gruesome murderous period to a whitewashed word that to millions of people is meaningless unless they are familiar with Greek to "Holocaust" it becomes an abstract that does not move many it becomes humdrum & you can twist & fashion to suit. Hence the current wave of anti Semitism & anti Israel . Who is defending "Holocaust"???

(14)
Reuven Frank,
July 30, 2012 7:11 PM

A second holocaust has already happened!

I do not think that I denigrate the memory of the 6 million who died at the hands of H-tler (YShV'Z),
when I say that I ALSO mourn for another 6 million.
The 6 million Jews who assimilated in the 30-40 years after WWII, and are lost to our people as Jews.
This was part of the impetus that drove me to become a Tora-true Jew. [I sincerely dislike terms such as, "Ba'al T'shuva, and "Orthodox." Hence, "Tora-true."]

(13)
Anonymous,
July 30, 2012 4:58 PM

another Holocaust: absolutely possible

Has there ever been anything to indicate regret on the part of the Nazi's? After the war ended, the murderers returned to their regular lives. Has any study been made of their thought processes in the long years since the war? Do any have nightmares of what they did? In particular, the Einsgrubben (I am probably spelling that wrong) went about their hands' on murder, one by one by one by one into the thousands right up until the war ended. Has one of them had second thoughts? A twinge of conscience, I wonder. As they entered their declining years, surely they must have reviewed their lives, the way most people do when they near the end. Has anyone heard of that happening?
It was so unbelievable, but the fact that it was doable makes it possible to happen again. We must make sure NEVER AGAIN.

(12)
H.E.Brown,
May 18, 2012 2:19 AM

Holocaust

YES IT COULD HAPPEN AGAIN.
Pray to God it does not happen.

Anonymous,
December 10, 2014 12:34 AM

Yeah, That'll Work

We absolutely must NEVER depend on G_d alone. G_d will help us only if we help ourselves.

(11)
Alan Greenburg,
May 14, 2012 12:06 PM

My wife is only here because her mother hid from the Nazis in Austria. I also meet with Jews and survivors of the Kindertransport,and I have a hatred of the Nazis and the new enemies of the Jews.
But does anyone think of the other millions that died? sometimes people wear blinkers and do not see, christians suffered under the Nazis too.
Maybe we might get another remembrance day sometime, when we we can shed a tear for the others as well.
I do not say this to belittle the holocaust, but in memory of the other innocents killed by that monster and his followers.

(10)
Christine,
February 3, 2012 7:35 AM

Israel

You know when you read those things about yourself that asks "Who inspires you" I never had any one to put down ever.Until I learned Jewish history.And now that is a no brainer.The Jewish people inspire me.I really mean that.i have never really looked up to anyone.I wish the world would understand that you are G_ds chosen people you are not G-d. Jew's are human and I think some people seem to get that little fact confused.

(9)
Sue Rubinstein,
February 3, 2012 7:22 AM

Not a day goes by without me being grateful my grandfathers left Poland in the 1920,s and landed w their family in NY. That one move is why I exist today. Some relatives weren't as fortunate. My 18 yr old son says its important for our people to have children, raise them jewish and keep growing. With kids like this, we have an excellent chance. Iran's leader is another Hitler and needs to be outsted. We get these types in every generation. Jealousy is a terrible thing.

(8)
Linda Plesa,
February 1, 2012 3:51 PM

wake up call to the West

the world needs to know the truth to stop such eventuality against Israel! they don't realize that they could be the next one in line with such a crazy Iranian dictator!!People of this kind are dangerous to the world,and the west needs to understand that and the true picture about Israel !therefore more work toward this goal must be achieved through the Media or any kind of communication system,with no fear of spreading the truth! it is for everyone's interest in this world.Israel is always doing the dirtty work for everyone Like the bombing of the nuclear plant of Irak !and the least is that the world should recognize that and not stay in the dark and be against Israel,We have part to be blame that everyone is in the dark. while propaganda was raging against Israel,Almost noone a responded,revendicated or showed the real truth of the situation.people got use to hear nonesense about Israel to the point that they believe it and don't even know anymore that they are lies.We must hurry to change that ,and we all must pray for G-d's help,we are all connected and we all need it.

(7)
Kristine,
February 1, 2012 7:25 AM

Two Options: Stop the Assimilation...

with the nations--repent and leave the religions of the nations and return to the Torah --- OR eliminate the Iranian threat. History shows, “God will never allow Israel to assimilate and disappear, even if He has to rule over them "with a mighty hand and a stretched out arm and outpoured anger" (Ezek. 20:32-44).
An example of this outpoured anger in modern times was when the proportion of assimilated Jews in Europe rose to over 50% in the 1930's, provoking a fury that while indiscriminately wiping out six million Jews, religious and non-religious, also indirectly lead to the establishment of the State of Israel, a huge ingathering of the exiles and the ongoing Torah revival that is taking place in our generation" (Rabbi Avraham Ben Yaakov).
SEE: Intermarriage rates among Diaspora Jews at all-time high: "The fear of assimilation of Diaspora Jews is a strategic threat for the continued existence of Israel,.."in the US 55% of all Jews married non-Jewish partners,..(YnetNews, 11.17.10).
"Our sages explain that the Children of Israel had become so entrenched in the paganism and depravity of Egypt, that the Exodus came at the very last possible moment, as they approached the very brink of total indistinguishability from the Egyptians.
Had they remained slaves in Egypt a moment longer, there would have been no "Children of Israel" to redeem" (Rabbi Eli Mansour). "The future redemption and ingathering of the exiles will be so striking that it will outweigh even the redemption from Egypt (ABY).
In the days of Haman, Esther faced the same threat -
annihilation - as the other assimilated Jews because she was married to a non-Jew. "In Nehemiah Ch. 9 we can read about the Israelites, the returnees from Babylon to Judea, separating themselves from foreign wives and children, and presumably from foreign ways of thinking as well" (ABY).
Isaiah 65:2-7, 66:17 says that also those who eat unclean food will perish in the War of Gog & Magog.

(6)
Frank Hunt,
February 1, 2012 12:12 AM

I am not a Jew but I stand squarely behind the Jewish people & their nation.I've been greatly inspired by them for their perseverence , achievements & restraint in the face of continued assaults.I'm longing to visit there someday.

(5)
Anonymous,
January 31, 2012 8:01 PM

An interesting conjecture

Suppose Hitler was somewhat less irrational, and instead of his mindless campaign on the eastern front and desire to conquer the world, he had decided, after taking all of Europe from France to Poland, to consolidate his gains and rebuild his military forces,while continuing his program to exterminate the Jews. .Would the rest of the world have made any effort to stop the holocaust? I think probably not, either because it wouldn't have been considered not worth the effort, or because they were actually glad it was happening.

(4)
Frank Bright,
January 31, 2012 5:39 PM

I always start a talk to schools with the observation that "Holocaust" is the wrong word, misleading and too many have jumped on the bandwagon

Excellent article, putting everything into a nutshell. As we use acronyms all the time it should be MMJG for Mass Murder of Jews by Germans. They can then have MMAT for Mass Murder of Armenians by Turks, MMHT for Mass Murder of Tutsies by Hutus, etc., all on different days. At present Holocaust day is being de-judaiced, a terrible word but it fits.

(3)
glenda urmacher,
January 31, 2012 5:04 PM

to all the anti-semites in the world, you are entitled to your hatred , bigotry and stupidity, but by the same token, it behooves you to shun all modern and futuristic products, medical and pharmacy achievements, nannotechnology, etc that have been developed by the intelligence of the Jewish People of the world, and shared with all.
Crawl back into the caves from which you came, keep marrying close blood relatives, keep stoning your females, have more children than your can afford to raise properly, and die an early death.

(2)
Anonymous,
January 31, 2012 4:06 PM

you are only a victim when you don't retaliate!

History has shown repeatedly, that the feared ones are respected, not defiled. Peoples rush to be associated with those who act on their own behalf. Israel has the weapons to surgically strike these holocost PROMOTERS. It is time to wipe them off the face of the Earth, making Israel both feared and respected. People who sit still for this sort of crap have been piled up on the garbage heap of History! ACT, and ACT NOW!

(1)
Gary Katz,
January 31, 2012 3:56 PM

Simple strategy

Perhaps Israelis should respond to accusals that they are worse than the Nazis by saying, "When we start forcing the Arabs into train cars at gunpoint, transporting them to camps where they are worked to death, starved, shot or gassed, then the Arabs will have a right to use the word 'Holocaust.'"

My nephew is having his bar mitzvah and I am thinking of a gift. In the old days, the gift of choice was a fountain pen, then a Walkman, and today an iPod. But I want to get him something special. What do you suggest?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Since this event celebrates the young person becoming obligated in the commandments, the most appropriate gift is, naturally, one that gives a deeper understanding of the Jewish heritage and enables one to better perform the mitzvot! (An iPod, s/he can get anytime.)

With that in mind, my favorite gift idea is a tzedakah (charity) box. Every Jew should have a tzedakah box in his home, so he can drop in change on a regular basis. The money can then be given to support a Jewish school or institution -- in your home town or in Israel (every Jews’ “home town”). There are beautiful tzedakah boxes made of wood and silver, and you can see a selection here.

For boys, a really beautiful gift is a pair of tefillin, the black leather boxes which contain parchments of Torah verses, worn on the bicep and the head. Owning a pair of Tefillin (and wearing them!) is an important part of Jewish identity. But since they are expensive (about $400), not every Bar Mitzvah boy has a pair. To make sure you get kosher Tefillin, see here.

In 1944, the Nazis perpetrated the Children's Action in the Kovno Ghetto. That day and the next, German soldiers conducted house-to-house searches to round up all children under age 12 (and adults over 55) -- and sent them to their deaths at Fort IX. Eventually, the Germans blew up every house with grenades and dynamite, on suspicion that Jews might be in hiding in underground bunkers. They then poured gasoline over much of the former ghetto and incinerated it. Of the 37,000 Jews in Kovno before the Holocaust, less than 10 percent survived. One of the survivors was Rabbi Ephraim Oshri, who later published a stirring collection of rabbinical responsa, detailing his life-and-death decisions during the Holocaust. Also on this date, in 1937, American Jews held a massive anti-Nazi rally in New York City's Madison Square Garden.

In a letter to someone who found it difficult to study Torah, the 20th century sage the Chazon Ish wrote:

"Some people find it hard to be diligent in their Torah studies. But the difficulty persists only for a short while - if the person sincerely resolves to submerge himself in his studies. Very quickly the feelings of difficulty will go away and he will find that there is no worldly pleasure that can compare with the pleasure of studying Torah diligently."

Although actions generally have much greater impact than thoughts, thoughts may have a more serious effect in several areas.

The distance that our hands can reach is quite limited. The ears can hear from a much greater distance, and the reach of the eye is much farther yet. Thought, however, is virtually limitless in its reach. We can think of objects millions of light years away, and so we have a much greater selection of improper thoughts than of improper actions.

Thought also lacks the restraints that can deter actions. One may refrain from an improper act for fear of punishment or because of social disapproval, but the privacy of thought places it beyond these restraints.

Furthermore, thoughts create attitudes and mindsets. An improper action creates a certain amount of damage, but an improper mindset can create a multitude of improper actions. Finally, an improper mindset can numb our conscience and render us less sensitive to the effects of our actions. We therefore do not feel the guilt that would otherwise come from doing an improper act.

We may not be able to avoid the occurrence of improper impulses, but we should promptly reject them and not permit them to dwell in our mind.

Today I shall...

make special effort to avoid harboring improper thoughts.

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